26 Oct 2011
There are troops fighting in Helmand today who belong to an armed force with a long and proud history and which is internationally recognised as one of most professional and … » more
26 Oct 2011
Dear Mr Hammond, you will no doubt be feeling a little perturbed about your new appointment. Your predecessor did not leave on the best of terms and the post has had a succession of short-term appointments ever since Geoff Hoon’s tour de force and subsequent departure in 2005 — Reid, Brown, Hutton, Ainsworth and now Fox mean that the average time spent in the department has been some 14 months.
06 Oct 2011
Andrew Dorman looks back at the Strategic Defence Review andjudges that if this was an end-of-year school report then phrases such as‘promised much’, ‘could do better’, ‘disappointing exam results’ would belikely to be prominent
06 Oct 2011
We have become used to Liam Fox beginning each speech with a reminder that the coalition government received a toxic legacy from their Labour predecessors. In his portfolio he consistently … » more
11 Jul 2011
In 1999, NATO fought its first war. Following the breakdown of talks at Rambouillet, NATO started bombing the Serb army in Kosovo in order to stop its ethnic cleansing of … » more
11 Jul 2011
On 16 May 2011, the government announced that an armed forces covenant would be enshrined into British law for the first time. The announcement is an important step towards refashioning … » more
11 Jul 2011
As the Cold War returned to one of its more frosty periods, an article written for The Economist magazine described the British Army as the worst equipped in Western Europe. … » more
10 Jul 2011
Peter Wall, the current Chief of the General Staff, has now followed his light (RAF) and dark blue (Royal Navy) equivalents in articulating the pressure on defence. Whereas the two … » more
03 Apr 2011
For all the criticism levelled at it, the UK's 2010 Strategy Review — National Security Strategy (NSS) and Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) — made a series of difficult … » more
03 Apr 2011
The recent House of Commons debate on Libya and UN Security Council Resolution 1973 proved to be intelligent, challenging and, at times, quite emotional. It was, truly, a testament to … » more
03 Apr 2011
In recent years, governments, international organisations and the private sector have become increasingly focused on cyber security and aware of the urgency connected with it. Every time large bundles of … » more
03 Apr 2011
In the beginning, if you believe the Bible, when God created the Earth it had three natural domains — sea, air and land, although it took awhile for mankind to … » more
07 Mar 2011
After a comparatively quiet couple of months, defence has reared its ugly head once again. The Public Accounts Committee has published a report condemning mismanagement within the Ministry of Defence … » more
05 Mar 2011
Is this a critical moment for the UK economy? Many commentators think so. Statistics come and go, but the depressing GDP data for the fourth quarter of 2010 followed by … » more
17 Jan 2011
October’s SDSR has faced fierce criticism, and in some respects justifiably so, says Tim Edmunds. However, it could also mean a new era for British defence.
30 Nov 2010
Control orders are legal orders that place suspected terrorists under house arrest and limit their activities in other ways, for example banning them from using mobile phones and restricting their … » more
28 Oct 2010
The day after Britain’s National Strategic Defence and Security Review was released on 18 October,
28 Oct 2010
In October 2010 the United States military activated ‘Cyber Command’ headed by a four-star general with as many as 90,000 troops; many other countries are known to have taken similar … » more
28 Oct 2010
An important aspect of the debate on whether or not we should invest in a new nuclear weapons system and, if so, what form it should take, is a serious … » more
28 Oct 2010
Early next year (please excuse the self-promotion) my biography of the Great War air ace Samuel Kinkead is due to be published. It will bear the official logo ‘FLY NAVY … » more
28 Oct 2010
The Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), tied directly to the new national security strategy (NSS), argues in favour of Britain maintaining a global role, focusing on Afghanistan in the … » more
28 Oct 2010
For all the new government’s efforts, a lack of strategic coherence is apparent in both the new National Security Strategy (NSS) and in the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR).
28 Oct 2010
Our criminal justice policies reflect tensions between simple and subtle ideas about crime control. Over the last two decades, under the relentless pressure of 24/7 media coverage, political discussion about … » more
28 Oct 2010
Cyberwar has come of age. According to some experts, ‘Stuxnet’, a recently discovered computer worm written to specifically attack Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) — systems used to control … » more
30 Sep 2010
If one was to read the 1998 Strategic Defence Review, the 2009 National Security Strategy and the 2010 green paper, and to listen to current Whitehall scuttlebutt about the strategic … » more
30 Sep 2010
As the Strategic Defence and Security Review moves towards its climax, contradictory signals are emanating from Whitehall. Sometimes the aircraft carriers are reported as being ‘ring fenced’. Then industry is … » more
05 Sep 2010
Despite the positions of the Labour government (in publishing a white paper on the UK’s deterrent in December 2006, a white paper endorsed both by a Parliamentary vote and the … » more
31 Aug 2010
In December 2006 the previous government published a white paper: The Future of the United the Kingdom’s Nuclear Deterrent. In the forward the then prime minister Tony Blair stated that: … » more
31 Aug 2010
When Tony Blair announced in 2006 the then government’s decision to replace the existing fleet of four Trident nuclear submarines there were few who challenged this £15-20bn commitment either within … » more
22 Jul 2010
The indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) enables the courts to imprison for an indefinite period those convicted of violent and sexual offences who are deemed to be … » more
22 Jul 2010
It is an exciting time to be in the offender rehabilitation business. That is not a sentence one hears very often. Even the phrase ‘offender rehabilitation’ has become an anachronism … » more
23 Jun 2010
Apart from the star performance of Blair, the media coverage of the Chilcot inquiry has been dominated by the question of legality centred on an interpretation of UNSCR 1441. Two … » more
23 Jun 2010
George Osborne’s emergency budget promised a reduction in most departmental (including defence) budgets of 25 per cent in real terms. Even without these reductions we already know from a National Audit Office report that the current planned procurement programme is up to £36bn overspent over the next decade assuming the defence budget keeps pace with inflation which it will not.
23 Jun 2010
Nick Carter, Britain’s unsung commander in Kandahar, has brought coherence to the struggle against the Taliban across Southern Afghanistan. This is the ‘good news’ story the government should tell the country...
23 Jun 2010
Every US Administration is required by the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act to publish a National Security Strategy. The document has often appeared late, and sometimes not at all; the latest edition … » more
23 Jun 2010
In June 2010 ex-Royal Marine Ben McBean, who lost an arm and a leg in Afghanistan, shared with an audience at the Royal United Services Institute the problem with his … » more
18 May 2010
The last time a coalition government took office was in the critical days of 1940, when Britain was fighting for its very survival. The enemy at the gates may now … » more
29 Mar 2010
How goes Operation Moshtarak — the British and US-led campaign in Helmand? It seems to have gone (relatively) quiet in Nad-Ali and Marje; ISAF commanders in Afghanistan are ‘cautiously optimistic’ … » more
29 Mar 2010
Conflicts in cyberspace are a reality: elements of any political, economic and military conflict now take place in and around the internet. Not surprisingly cyberwar has become a buzzword in … » more
29 Mar 2010
The Chilcot Inquiry seems to be a very expensive luxury. There have already been two inquiries into the Iraq War. In August 2003, the Hutton Inquiry’s investigations of the death … » more
29 Mar 2010
With a fleet of admirals, more generals than we have battalions, more air chief marshals than we have fighter squadrons, Britain has relatively more top brass than the US...
29 Mar 2010
The publication of the Government’s Defence Strategy for Acquisition Reform in February 2010 could be viewed with some justification as just one more episode in a long-running soap opera marked … » more
06 Jul 2008
Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, on the wrongs of the legislation and the failings of its safeguards. (based on his speech at 3rd reading)
06 Jul 2008
Rodney Austin, a senior human rights lawyer and academic, sets out the Bill's provisions and what it means in practice, and questions its compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights.